Hog Prices Rally Most in Two Weeks on Pork Demand; Cattle Steady

By Elizabeth Campbell -
Jan 8, 2013

Hog futures jumped the most in two
weeks on signs of increasing U.S. pork demand. Cattle prices
were little changed.

Wholesale-pork prices are up 1.3 percent this year,
compared with a 1.3 percent decline for the same period in 2012,
U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed. The meat reached
83.46 cents a pound on Jan. 4, the highest since Dec. 18, and
prices were unchanged yesterday, USDA data show. Meatpackers
processed 432,000 hogs yesterday, 0.9 percent more than a year
earlier, government figures show.

“We’ve got good movement, and prices have been grinding
higher,” Chad Henderson, the president of Prime Agricultural
Consultants Inc. in Brookfield, Wisconsin, said in a telephone
interview. “That just gives some support underneath this
market.”

Hog futures for February settlement climbed 0.7 percent to
86.9 cents a pound at 9:22 a.m. on the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange, heading for the biggest gain for a most-active
contract since Dec. 24.

Cattle futures for February delivery rose less than 0.1
percent to $1.33075 a pound on the CME. Last week, prices fell
0.5 percent, the first drop since Nov. 30.

Feeder-cattle futures for March settlement dropped 0.2
percent to $1.55825 a pound.